"Imagine walking into a vat of cinnamon taffy. That's what went through my mind as we entered the Wave, a weird, dreamlike world of swirling colors and psychedelic patterns in the rock. Maybe it was the desert heat, but it all looked like gooey taffy, stretched over huge mounds and 50-foot canyon walls. The surrounding buttes were heaps of melting rocky road ice cream.

"The Wave's undulating walls are lined with burnt sienna, pink, gray, turquoise and pale green. The bands mostly run horizontally, but at spots they zigzag and shimmy before falling back into their previous pattern.

"...When she first walked into the Wave, (Susie) Shults said she imagined herself flying, swooping down along the rocky surface, soaking up the colored bands and banking off the undulating canyon walls. I understood what she was feeling. This place is a hallucination set in stone..."

For the sake of accuracy, we should acknowledge that The Wave is actually in Arizona. The BLM office that oversees the area is in Utah, and the hike starts in Utah, but you cross the state line as you hike.

Martin suggests lodging in Page, overlooking Lake Powell, which is a great place to make a base camp if you want to explore the region. However, the closest lodging is in Kanab, Utah, and that makes an even better base if you want to see major nearby attractions like the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.